The Caregiving Society

As America ages, we will confront the dilemmas of caregiving on a mass scale, living long enough to suffer cognitive and physical decline in a culture that values the vigor and freedom of youth. It can be humiliating for those who think of themselves as autonomous individuals to confront the human realities of familial dependence. These are the tensions and paradoxes of caregiving in the age of individualism, writes Peter Lawler, and the "ownership society" is only one dimension of living well with aging in America.
The New Atlantis Spring 2005